History of Clothing

The fabric and textile industry is the most leadingNear East around 8000 BC. The cultivation and usage
industry in the world today. The use of cloth in today'sof cotton as a clothing was common in the Indus
world is more than ever. Today we use fabric forValley civilization in around 4000BC. Around the same
everything, starting from bed sheets to grand pianotime, linen was also produced in ancient Egypt. Many
covers. Yet, before we started dressing our piano withweaving techniques and tools were invented in Egypt
a grand piano cover, it was the human body itselfduring these times. Usage of linen was so much in
which was covered and decorated with clothes.Egypt that ancient Egyptians even used it in
It is said that the earliest of men used to covermummification of their dead. All of these facts are
themselves with leaves and animal skin. Even in thosevery eminent from the art depictions of those times.
times, clothes very much represented a social standing,The Chinese are known to have invented the silk fiber
as the mightiest and strongest men wore the skin ofaround 3000BC. Traces of silk are found from
the wildest beasts. Archaeological evidences provedifferent historic sites in China. Due to the invention of
the use of clothing and textile as early as 170,000Silk in China and the production of cotton on the Indus
years ago. The clothes at that time were wrappedRiver, the trade of textile and fabric was very
and tied around the body rather than stitched in acommon on the Silk Road. This quickly made clothing
proper manner. However, the very first sewingsewed out of weaved fabric a common necessity
needles found are of about 40,000 years ago. Thisaround the world.
suggests that people started to stitch their clothes byDuring the classical ages, the most fashionable kind of
that time, and this fact also leads to an assumptionclothing in the west was tunics and togas worn by
that some kind of fiber was already discovered.Greeks and Romans. However, it was in the medieval
The date of the earliest fiber use and discovery istimes that fashion became an essential element of
disputed yet, but archaeologists have found a strandsociety and class. People started to wear different
of dyed flax fiber in a cave in Georgia. This strand ofcloths according to their social ranks and standing. The
dyed fiber dates back to 36,000BP. A 25,000 yearsfinest fashion was for the lords and socialites, while
old statue of Venus is the very first figurine of anyonepeasants and the poor used to wear plain clothes.
depicted with clothing. Clothing includes all theThen, came the Middle Ages when fashion was
accessories such as hat and belts. Well made sewingsomething that everyone was following, and the fact is
needles and weaving sticks belonging to the same erastill the same. Clothing is not only a necessity now, but
were also discovered in Eastern and Western Europe.a lot more than that. It well defines a person's overall
It is assumed that the very first fabric to be used waspersonality and it is pretty much enough to change that
felt, but it was a bit rougher than today's felt. Thetoo.
woven textile however, is Flax. It was cultivated in the